Barden on chess

Corus Wijk finishes tomorrow. With three rounds left, the world champion Veselin Topalov on 7.5/10 led the world No2 Vishy Anand by half a point. Anand has Black when they meet today, starting at 12.30pm GMT, and their game, free and live on the websites coruschess.com and chessgames.com, is sure to attract a huge global internet audience.

England's No1 Michael Adams is doing well in third place, and the stellar performances of the teenage duo of Sergey Karjakin, 16, and Magnus Carlsen, 15, are highly significant. The Ukrainian Karjakin has lost only to Topalov and Anand, and lies in fifth position, while Carlsen, placed in the B group because his recent World Cup success came too late for promotion, leads it with 7.5/10.

Both are improving rapidly, showing the teenage quantum jump typical of many great players. Half a century back Bobby Fischer and Mikhail Tal also made almost simultaneous surges to the top.

Carlsen's attacking style has similarities with Tal, but Karjakin is an all-rounder, adept in every phase and with a impressive memory databank. It already looks as if their rivalry will shape chess in the next decade.